Dynastic Chronicle

L. W. King’s line-art for a fragment (K. 8532) of the Dynastic Chronicle.[1]

The Dynastic Chronicle, "Chronicle 18" in Grayson's Assyrian and Babylonian Chronicles[2] or the "Babylonian Royal Chronicle" in Glassner’s Mesopotamian Chronicles,[3] is a fragmentary ancient Mesopotamian text extant in at least four known copies. It is actually a bilingual text written in 6 columns, representing a continuation of the Sumerian king list tradition through to the 8th century BC and is an important source for the reconstruction of the historical narrative for certain periods poorly preserved elsewhere.

Contents

From the extant pieces, the work apparently begins with a list of nine antediluvian kings from five cities, so much resembling that of the Sumerian King List that Thorkild Jacobsen considered it a variant,[4] and an account of the flood before proceeding on with that of the successive Babylonian dynasties. Due to the poor state of preservation of the center of the text, there are a great many gaps (lacunae, or lacunas), and the narrative resumes with the post-Kassite king Simbar-Šipak (ca.1025–1008 BC), the final discernible king being Erība-Marduk (ca. 769–761 BC) although it certainly would have continued, possibly until Nabû-šuma-iškun (ca. 761–748 BC), leading William W. Hallo to suggest it to be a composition during Nabû-nāṣir's reign (747–732 BC).[5]

The text dwells on the final resting place of the kings, leading some to propose that the legitimacy of rule determined the location of the burial.[2]

The following collation should be considered preliminary as small fragments continue to be identified, where 1A, 1B and 1C probably come from the same tablet although they do not actually join[2]:139 and others, such as 79-7-8, 333+ (copy 2 below) have their identification disputed.[6]

^Rykle Borger (1994). "The Incantation Series Bīt Mēseri and Enoch's Ascenson to Heaven". In Richard S. Hess,David Tsumura. I Studied Inscriptions from Before the Flood: Ancient Near Eastern and Literary Approaches to Genesis 1-11. Eisenbrauns. p. 225.

1.
Mesopotamia
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In the Iron Age, it was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian Empires. The Sumerians and Akkadians dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of history to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In AD226, eastern part of it fell to the Sassanid Persians, division of Mesopotamia between Roman and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. The regional toponym Mesopotamia comes from the ancient Greek root words μέσος middle and ποταμός river and it is used throughout the Greek Septuagint to translate the Hebrew equivalent Naharaim. In the Anabasis, Mesopotamia was used to designate the land east of the Euphrates in north Syria, the Aramaic term biritum/birit narim corresponded to a similar geographical concept. The neighbouring steppes to the west of the Euphrates and the part of the Zagros Mountains are also often included under the wider term Mesopotamia. A further distinction is made between Northern or Upper Mesopotamia and Southern or Lower Mesopotamia. Upper Mesopotamia, also known as the Jazira, is the area between the Euphrates and the Tigris from their sources down to Baghdad, Lower Mesopotamia is the area from Baghdad to the Persian Gulf and includes Kuwait and parts of western Iran. In modern academic usage, the term Mesopotamia often also has a chronological connotation and it is usually used to designate the area until the Muslim conquests, with names like Syria, Jazirah, and Iraq being used to describe the region after that date. It has been argued that these later euphemisms are Eurocentric terms attributed to the region in the midst of various 19th-century Western encroachments, Mesopotamia encompasses the land between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, both of which have their headwaters in the Armenian Highlands. Both rivers are fed by tributaries, and the entire river system drains a vast mountainous region. Overland routes in Mesopotamia usually follow the Euphrates because the banks of the Tigris are frequently steep and difficult. The climate of the region is semi-arid with a vast desert expanse in the north which gives way to a 15,000 square kilometres region of marshes, lagoons, mud flats, in the extreme south, the Euphrates and the Tigris unite and empty into the Persian Gulf. In the marshlands to the south of the area, a complex water-borne fishing culture has existed since prehistoric times, periodic breakdowns in the cultural system have occurred for a number of reasons. Alternatively, military vulnerability to invasion from marginal hill tribes or nomadic pastoralists has led to periods of trade collapse and these trends have continued to the present day in Iraq

2.
Lacuna (manuscripts)
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A lacuna is a gap in a manuscript, inscription, text, painting, or a musical work. A manuscript, text, or section suffering from gaps is said to be lacunose or lacunulose, some books intentionally add lacunas to be filled in by the owner, often as a game or to encourage children to create their own stories. Weathering, decay, and other damage to old manuscripts or inscriptions are often responsible for lacunae—words, sentences, to reconstruct the original text, the context must be considered. In papyrology and textual criticism this may lead to competing reconstructions and interpretations, published texts that contain lacunae often mark the section where text is missing with a bracketed ellipsis. For example, This sentence contains 20 words, and nouns, or, Finally, a famous Old English example of a lacuna is in the manuscript British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A. xv, the poem Beowulf, hyrde ich thæt elan cwen. This particular lacuna is always reproduced in editions of the text, but many people have attempted to fill it, notably editors Wyatt-Chambers and Dobbie, among others, malone proposed the name Yrse for the unnamed queen, as that would alliterate with Onela. This is still debated amongst editors, however. Another notable lacuna is the eight-leaves-long Great Lacuna in the Codex Regius, parts of it survived in independent manuscripts and in prose form in the Völsunga saga. In Codex Leicester the text skips from Acts 10,45 to 14,17 without a break, possibly a scribe rewrote it from a defective manuscript

3.
Simbar-shipak
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Simbar-Šipak, or perhaps Simbar-Šiḫu, typically inscribed msim-bar-dši-i-ḪU or si-im-bar-ši-ḪU in cuneiform, where the reading of the last symbol is uncertain, “offspring of Šipak”, ca. His identification with the Sibir named by Ashurnasirpal II in his annals as having captured and laid waste Atlila. Simbar-Šipak lived during turbulent times, where crop failures and almost constant conflicts with semi-nomadic migrants caused the Babylonian government of the preceding 2nd Dynasty of Isin to fall, as a soldier from the southern region of Mesopotamia, he emerged to stabilize the situation. Despite the apparent Kassite character of his name, there is no evidence of this tribal affiliation. Although there are no traces of his name remaining on the Assyrian Synchronistic King List, only four contemporary written documents from his reign are known. The city of Saḫritu, in the Second Elul, in the year of Simbar-Šipak. The nail of Zêria, the son of Kudurri, the tax-collector, to represent his seal. ”It would be tempting to identify the first witness with his nemesis and successor, Ea-mukin-zēri but this would be speculative. It states that it is Marduk that sits at the throne where Enlil, the Eclectic Chronicle describes the same event. The goods property of the god Enlil which the Arameans had carried off and Subartu had appropriated, Simbar-Šipak, viceroy of the god Enlil, favorite of… reverent shepherd…was exceedingly concerned about the renovation of the temple E-kur and the city of Nippur. He had a throne … constructed and set up, suitable for Enlil’s august position as supreme god, on account of this, when … Enlil … sits upon this throne, may the fate of Simbar-Šipak … be established favorably. In his dedication to Enlil, he himself as, “he who puts in order the paths of Anum and Dagan, he who preserves their rites. ”The Sun God Tablet of Nabu-apla-iddina relates that “during the troubles and disorders in Akkad”, the Sutû. This was the year his reign came to a end when he was assassinated, quite possibly by his successor, Ea-mukin-zēri, “by the sword. He “was buried in the palace of Sargon. ”

4.
Nabu-shuma-ishkun
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Nabû-šuma-iškun, inscribed mdNabû-šuma-iškunun, was king of Babylon, speculatively ca.761 –748 BC, and ruled during a time of great civil unrest. He came from the Bīt-Dakkūri tribe, a Chaldean group apparently unrelated to that of his immediate predecessor and his place in the sequence of Babylonian rulers is confirmed by an Assyrian Synchronistic Kinglist fragment. His barrel cylinder records the struggle over the control of their fields in the face of the incursions of marauders from Babylon and Dilbat, at night, the city streets and its temple area were transformed into a battleground. During the fifth and sixth years of the king, the strife was so great that the idol of Nabû was prevented from participating in the Akītu. The coincidental recording of five and six of a no longer legible ruler in the Chronicle of the Market Prices has led this reference to be assigned to him. In the king’s eighth year, Nabû-šuma-imbi was able to install a certain Nabû-mutakkil as a temple official, unfortunately the Chronicle was damaged in antiquity so how he met his come-uppance is not preserved

5.
Kassites
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The Kassites were a people of the ancient Near East, who controlled Babylonia after the fall of the Old Babylonian Empire c.1531 BC and until c.1155 BC. The endonym of the Kassites was probably Galzu, although they have also referred to by the names Kaššu. They gained control of Babylonia after the Hittite sack of the city in 1595 BC, the horse, which the Kassites worshipped, first came into use in Babylonia at this time. The Kassite language has not been classified, however, several Kassite leaders bore Indo-European names, and they might have had an Indo-European elite similar to the Mitanni, who ruled over the Hurro-Urartian-speaking Hurrians of Asia Minor. The original homeland of the Kassites is not well known, but appears to have located in the Zagros Mountains. However the Kassites were – like the Elamites, Gutians and Manneans who preceded them – linguistically unrelated to the Iranian-speaking peoples who came to dominate the region a millennium later. They first appeared in the annals of history in the 18th century BC when they attacked Babylonia in the 9th year of the reign of Samsu-iluna, the son of Hammurabi. The Hittites had carried off the idol of the god Marduk, but the Kassite rulers regained possession, returned Marduk to Babylon, the circumstances of their rise to power are unknown, due to a lack of documentation from this so-called Dark Age period of widespread dislocation. No inscription or document in the Kassite language has been preserved, Babylon under Kassite rulers, who renamed the city Karanduniash, re-emerged as a political and military power in Mesopotamia. A newly built capital city Dur-Kurigalzu was named in honour of Kurigalzu I and their success was built upon the relative political stability that the Kassite monarchs achieved. They ruled Babylonia practically without interruption for almost four hundred years— the longest rule by any dynasty in Babylonian history, Kassite kings established trade and diplomacy with Assyria. Egypt, Elam, and the Hittites, and the Kassite royal house intermarried with their royal families, There were foreign merchants in Babylon and other cities, and Babylonian merchants were active from Egypt to Assyria and Anatolia. A further treaty between Kurigalzu I and Ashur-bel-nisheshu of Assyria was agreed in the mid 15th century, Babylon was sacked by the Assyrian king Ashur-uballit I ) in the 1360s after the Kassite king in Babylon who was married to the daughter of Ashur-uballit was murdered. Ashur-uballit promptly marched into Babylonia and avenged his son-in-law, deposing the king and installing Kurigalzu II of the royal Kassite line as king there and his successor Enlil-nirari also attacked Babylonia and his great grandson Adad-nirari I annexed Babylonian territory when he became king. Tukulti-Ninurta I not content with merely dominating Babylonia went further, conquering Babylonia, deposing Kashtiliash IV, the Kassite kings maintained control of their realm through a network of provinces administered by governors. Almost equal with the cities of Babylon and Dur-Kurigalzu, the revived city of Nippur was the most important provincial center. Nippur, the great city, which had been virtually abandoned c.1730 BC, was rebuilt in the Kassite period. In fact, under the Kassite government, the governor of Nippur, the prestige of Nippur was enough for a series of 13th century BC Kassite kings to reassume the title governor of Nippur for themselves